How to Review and Sign the Illinois Shines Disclosure Form

The Illinois Shines disclosure form is a standardized document the Illinois Power Agency requires every solar vendor to put in front of you — stripped of marketing language — before you sign a solar contract or community solar subscription. It lays out the system size, the price, the fees, any incentive pass-through, and the projected savings in a consistent format you can compare against the vendor’s proposal and the contract itself. Your job before signing is to read it as a line-by-line checklist, not a formality.¹

Make Sure You Got the Right Version

There are four versions of the form, and the one you receive depends on how your project is structured. A purchase form applies if you’re buying the system outright. A lease form applies if you’re paying to use equipment someone else owns. A power purchase agreement (PPA) form applies if a third party owns the panels on your roof and you buy the electricity they produce. A community solar form applies if you’re subscribing to a share of an off-site project and receiving bill credits from your utility. Each form collects different financial data because the money flows differently in each arrangement.¹

What the Form Actually Shows You

Rooftop Purchase, Lease, and PPA Forms

A distributed generation purchase form lists the project size in both kW AC and kW DC, the estimated first-year production in kilowatt-hours, and a full cost breakdown.² That cost section is more granular than the single price your salesperson quoted. It separates the deposit, the main purchase payment, any maintenance fees, the interconnection fee your utility charges, and late-payment penalties. A sample form shows a total all-in cost of $22,550 for a 6.6 kW DC system, a figure that includes a $100 annual maintenance fee over 20 years and a $100 interconnection fee that a verbal quote might have omitted.³

The form also discloses the Renewable Energy Credit (REC) incentive. It shows the total expected REC value if the project is accepted into Illinois Shines and, separately, how much of that incentive the Approved Vendor passes on to you. In the same sample, the total REC value was $10,153 and the vendor committed to passing $9,000 of that to the customer. The gap is the vendor’s cut, and comparing it across proposals can reveal which company is keeping a larger share of state incentives.³

A DG purchase form also includes an estimated range for the value of electricity your system will generate over 15 years, calculated using multiple electricity price escalation assumptions and a 0.5% annual production decline. The form explicitly warns that these savings estimates are not a guarantee and do not account for the time value of money.³

Community Solar Forms

A community solar disclosure form looks different because you aren’t buying equipment. It shows your subscription size in kW AC, your estimated first-year production in kilowatt-hours, and the per-kilowatt-hour rate you pay for your share of the energy.⁴

The financial section walks through how savings work. Your savings come from the difference between your subscription price and the bill credit rate your utility applies. The form illustrates this with a concrete example: if your subscription rate is 5 cents per kWh and the utility credit rate is 5.78 cents per kWh, you effectively save about 0.78 cents on every kilowatt-hour your share produces. Watch for whether the subscription rate is fixed or variable, whether there is an annual escalation clause, and what the late-fee terms are. The form template includes fields for all of these.⁴

Every disclosure form carries a unique identification number. Keep it. The Program Administrator may ask for it if you call with questions about your project.⁵

What to Check Before You Sign

Treat the form as a checklist you compare line by line against the proposal, the marketing claims, and the contract. The Illinois Shines Consumer Protection Handbook requires that all contract terms be consistent with the information on the disclosure form and with any marketing claims made to you.⁶ If a salesperson promised a certain savings figure but the form shows a lower number, the form is what counts.

System size and address. Confirm the kW rating matches the proposal and the installation address is correct.
Total cost on DG forms. Add every line item — deposit, installation payments, maintenance fees, interconnection fee — and confirm the total matches the contract price. Hidden fees often surface here.
Subscription rate on community solar forms. Verify whether your rate is fixed or variable and read the escalation clause. A rate that starts below your utility supply price but escalates 3% annually could overtake your savings within a few years.
REC incentive pass-through on DG forms. Check what portion of the REC value flows back to you versus staying with the vendor.
Late-payment terms. Note the triggers and the penalty percentages so nothing surprises you later.
Contract duration. Community solar subscriptions and lease agreements lock you in for years. Confirm the term matches what you were told verbally.

The form itself states that it is not a substitute for reading your contract. Any mismatch between the two is a red flag worth resolving before you sign either document.²

Signing the Form

You must sign the completed disclosure form before you sign your installation contract or subscription agreement.¹ The sequencing is intentional. The program wants you to absorb the standardized financial summary before committing to the deal. If a vendor asks you to sign both documents simultaneously, or asks you to sign the contract first, that is a process violation.

Most vendors handle signatures electronically through the Illinois Shines portal. The vendor generates the form, triggers an e-signature request to your email, and once you sign, the portal records the date and updates the form’s status to “Completed.”⁷ Paper signatures are also accepted; the vendor scans and uploads the signed PDF manually. Either way, ask for a copy of the completed form for your records if the vendor doesn’t offer one.

You need to sign the form yourself. An Approved Vendor or sales agent should not sign on your behalf, even with your verbal permission. The only exceptions are limited circumstances such as a physical disability that prevents you from signing.⁶

When the Vendor Must Issue a New Form

A signed disclosure form is not permanent. If the terms of your deal change materially after you sign, the vendor must issue a new form and get your signature again. If the system size changes, the price adjusts, or the contract type shifts (say, from a purchase to a lease), a fresh form reflecting the updated terms must be generated, signed, and uploaded before the project proceeds.⁶

Cancellation Rights After You Sign

Signing the disclosure form itself doesn’t lock you into the solar contract; the disclosure form precedes the contract. Even after you sign the contract, you may still have cancellation options. Under the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule, if a salesperson came to your home or approached you somewhere other than the seller’s permanent place of business, you have three business days to cancel a sale valued at more than $25.⁸ Many residential solar sales begin with a door-to-door pitch or a home consultation, so the rule frequently applies.

Beyond the federal rule, read your contract for any additional cancellation window. Some community solar providers include their own cancellation period or early termination terms. Those should be consistent with what the disclosure form describes. If the contract carries a cancellation penalty the disclosure form never mentioned, raise it with the Program Administrator.

A Note on the Federal Tax Credit for 2026

If your disclosure form or vendor materials reference the federal residential clean energy credit (sometimes called the solar investment tax credit), be aware that the Section 25D credit is no longer available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.⁹ Any savings projection on a 2026 disclosure form that still includes a 30% federal tax credit is using outdated figures. Ask the vendor to recalculate. The Illinois Shines REC incentive is a separate state-level program and remains available regardless of the federal credit’s status.

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Illinois Shines. Disclosure Forms
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Illinois Shines. PV System Purchase Disclosure Form
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Illinois Shines. Distributed Generation With Illinois Shines
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Illinois Shines. Illinois Shines Community Solar Standard Disclosure Form
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Illinois Shines. Deep Dive Into Your Disclosure Form – Community Solar
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Illinois Shines. Disclosure Forms – Circumstances Requiring New DF Issuance and Signature
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Illinois Shines. Illinois Shines Portal Help Guides – Managing Disclosure Forms
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Federal Trade Commission. Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Home or Other Locations
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Internal Revenue Service. Residential Clean Energy Credit